So You’ve Been Hacked? Here are Your Next Steps

Even after doing everything right, organizations across the country continue to experience cyber breaches. While preventative measures highly decrease risk of cyber incidents, an organization cannot completely eradicate all cyber risk, primarily because as security and safeguards against hackers become more advanced, so do the hackers. The cyber landscape is ever evolving and no matter how prepared you perceive your organization to be, the reality is every organization still harbors a strong likelihood of experiencing a breach. Full preparedness thus requires not only preventive measures but also necessitates an incident response plan, an understanding of what should be done in the event of a breach. If you are currently working on your organization’s breach response plan and need ideas, or if your company has recently experienced a cyberbreach and you are unsure of how to respond, check out the below tips for recovering from a cyber hack:

 

1.      Contain the Damage. 

Once the hack has been detected, it is imperative that an organization do anything possible to contain the damage to the already affected programs and devices. Disconnecting affected devices from the network, changing passwords, and running anti-virus software are all effective strategies used to prevent viruses and damage from spreading. 

2.      Enlist Additional IT Support. 

If your organization does not have an IT staff or could just benefit from extra help and a fresh viewpoint, contact a team of IT experts to assist in restoration and recovery. A team of experts can perform pen testing, identify the breach, recover your data, and restore operations. More than any other step, this tip is essential in regaining data and business functionality. Contact the ThreatAdvice Incident Response Team for immediate assistance with remediation.

3.      Contact Legal Experts. 

You will want to ensure compliance with all state and federal laws relating to data breaches or risk additional fines and loss in addition to the massive loss already associated with a cyber breach. 

4.      Notify those affect by the breach. 

Different states may have different rules and regulations regarding notification and reporting after a cyber incident, but you will be required to inform customers of any compromised data. Check with your legal team to ensure proper notification. 

 

5.      Create a Temporary Business Plan.

A cyber incident may cause a business to be off its network for several weeks. If your organization functions primarily online or cannot function without its computers and networks, you will be forced to shut down for several weeks or devise an alternate way to operate. 

6.      Take Preventative Steps. 

Now that you have experienced a breach, you will likely experience pressure from employees and customers to avoid a second one. Luckily, there are steps you can take to strengthen your defense against cybercriminals, such as educating your employees on cybersecurity matters or engaging a virtual Chief Information Security Officer to strengthen you company’s overall security posture.

  

Obviously organizations hope to avoid a breach, but sometimes they are unavoidable. After preventative measures, creating an incident response plan is the best tool in fighting cyber criminals.